Last few weeks have been filled with both good and bad luck but a notable piece of good luck is scoring an original pair of A-arms and front crossmember for the one year only 69 Boge hydrapneumatic (most often called hydro...) self-leveling front struts, also used in Citroens. It was part of the Comfort Group package for the 69 911E.
These struts failed miserably and nearly every single one was replaced with a standard crossmember and A-arms with Koni struts. This package was advertized regularly in '70s Porsche magazines. The old parts were mostly thrown away many years ago.
I was fortunate 15+ years ago to pick up 2 pair of the struts. You can still find them now and again actually, I think mostly because it's harder to throw something so unique away. That and since the bubble, anything unearthed from a shop basement/backroom that has gone out of business, is always kept and put on eBay.
But the A-arms and crossmember I have never seen for sale and that's with checking Classifieds here 5 to 10 times a day, every day, for the last 25 years.
About a month ago, lo and behold, there was a complete front suspension for sale. One member had already called them saying he was local and can come and get them. I sent emails to both the seller and prospective buyer, the former asking to let me know if the deal falls through and the latter asking if he would want to sell the crossmember and A-arms. No response from both.
That is until 2 weeks after, the seller sent me a note saying the buyer never showed. He was going to contact him to confirm (a true gentlemen) and let me know the outcome. Luckily, he never heard back. The seller and I struck up a conversation about why I needed them and like so many times here over the years, we bonded on these unique and special cars. We arrived up a deal for the parts and he was a true compatriot in getting everything packed up and off to me which I just received today. I feel lucky to have seen these in the first place, lucky that the first buyer never showed and lucky that the seller and I were of the same mind.
And lucky that I have extremely rare parts for my 69S that was a special order car with the hydra= suspension and one year only '67 color paint Velvet Green among other special touches like factory AC. It is a true Special Wishes car long before Special Wishes became a factory program.
Winning the car advertised on Classifieds was also an immense bit of luck as nearly 100 people contacted the owner after he posted it for sale with a '75 Carrera, but that's another story.
The parts are unique in that the A-arms don't have a strengthening plate under the arm like standard torsion bar cars have, it is open, no splines in the front tube and the crossmember ends are open not needing to clock the torsion bars.
Original sticker
